The match sent a shock wave around the world. AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence program developed by Britain-based Google DeepMind, defeated a top Go player. The Go board is larger than those used for chess and shogi, and many believed AI programs would defeat humans 10 years from now at the earliest. Remarkable technological development demonstrated ability in a field requiring a "wide perspective" to read situations every time a move was made. This is the third AI boom since the end of World War II. In the last two, AI programs could not do anything unless they were taught "knowledge" and "ways of thinking" by humans.

VC Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz thinks it's a lot harder to predict financial cycles than it is to see a new computing platform coming down the pike. As he noted in a recent post, new cycles tend to begin every 10 to 15 years; assuming the 2007 introduction of the iPhone kicked off the last wave, we're fast heading toward the Next New Thing. Or things, technically, according to Dixon, who we caught up with yesterday. Among the trends that Dixon is watching closely, he says, are virtual reality, augmented reality, IoT, wearables, drones and cars. Not that it'll be easy to make money off these newer technologies. In fact, Dixon suggests it could be ridiculously challenging, given how quickly Facebook, Google, and Amazon are bringing aboard related talent.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Intel's keynotes can be fun, with robots parading on stage and drones zigzagging around the room. Now Intel's making new hardware to help enthusiasts join the fun by building robots and drones at home. The Robotic Development Kit and Aero Kit provide the necessary hardware and software tools to build robots and drones, respectively. The kits were announced at the ongoing Intel Developer Forum in Shenzhen, China. A major element of the developer boards is the RealSense 3D camera, which will ship with the kits and help the robots and drones navigate and avoid obstacles.

Meet other students from Berlin and Brandenburg universities interested in Artificial Intelligence and related fields like Natural Language Processing, Deep Learning, Computational Linguistics, etc. We will have a short impulse talk about a current AI-related topic (15 minutes) and discussion (15-20 minutes) by somebody from either industry, science, or also from the student community. During the open-ended get-together we mingle and students will have the opportunity to meet potential employers, co-founders, project partners, or find inspiration for their own project ideas. Our meetup takes place at gtec.berlin (German Tech Entrepreneurship Center), 4th floor of the Admin Building of the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT).

If you're planning on working in artificial intelligence (AI), you have to have a certain amount of bravery. Not the creeper-smashing, rose-toting iron golem sort of bravery one may encounter in Minecraft, but bravery nevertheless. As Katja Hoffmann, a researcher in the Machine Intelligence and Perception group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, notes, being part of the machine intelligence field means you have to develop an understanding of how learning works – and a big part of that is finding out what doesn't work. In other words, it requires a certain kind of bravery to accept that failure is an important step in the learning process. I had a chance to sit down with Katja to ask her what motivates her to do what she does, and also what advice she'd give to girls considering a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths).

Accenture have announced the global rollout of an intelligent automation platform, Accenture myWizard, that enables smarter, more innovative and more efficient application services consisting of systems integration and application development and management. The platform combines Accenture's industry and technology assets and business knowledge across 40 industries with intelligent automation, including artificial intelligence at its core. Accenture myWizard supports productivity improvement for clients by employing a team of virtual agents, powered by artificial intelligence, to analyze data, identify patterns and guide human workers to make better informed decisions. This guides human workers to make better informed decisions that can drive highly impactful business performance which can include significant improvement in application quality, cost reduction and speed to market. The new platform brings together numerous proprietary Accenture industry assets, including intelligent and analytics tools and methods, as well as tools from across Accenture's alliance partner ecosystem.

At a time when the banking industry needs to become increasingly focused on creating better customer experiences, the importance of distributing personalized communications that provide real value has never been greater. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help make this possible -- both automatically and at scale. The banking industry is undergoing a major transformation. Evolving regulatory requirements, more demanding customers, and greater competition from new, non-traditional players are among the catalysts driving change. Collectively, these and other factors are forcing banks and credit unions to rethink their business and how they engage with consumers.

A Swiss data analytics and cybersecurity company is beefing up its Boston-area presence after grabbing 40 million in venture capital, led by Highland Europe. Nexthink established a U.S. presence three weeks ago with the opening of a sales office in Cambridge, MA. The company employs about 10 people there to start, but it plans to grow to 120 local employees over the next 18 months, a spokeswoman says. Nexthink helps IT departments analyze and monitor their businesses' applications, devices, and other network activity in real time. The goal is to sniff out cyber attacks and minimize software disruptions for end users.

For nearly 60 episodes, one question has persisted through What's Tech: what is happening in the ending of Steven Spielberg's 2001 sci-fi film A.I. Artificial Intelligence? To settle the question once and for all, I invited my friend and artificial intelligence expert, Sam Byford, to appear on the show. Sadly, as you will hear me learn, Sam Byford is an expert in actual artificial intelligence, not the film Artificial Intelligence. Truth is, he's never even seen the film. This is still one of my favorite episodes of What's Tech, as Byford shares what it was like to attend the recent match-up of human Go champion Lee Se-dol and artificial intelligence AlphaGo.